FAREWELL POSSUMS - Forgotten Musical Masterpieces REVISITED (Series 1: Part 2.5)

Steve Wright was arguably Barry Humphries’ greatest fan, as the entertainer was a regular guest on Steve's Big Show on BBC Radio 2 (see photo). A year on from Barry’s passing, on 23rd April 2023, radio producer Clair Wordsworth continues to recall highlights Barry's critically acclaimed vintage music show, which ran on the Network from 2016 to 2022.

A seventh series of Barry’s Forgotten Musical Masterpieces was due to be recorded in May 2023, when the witty 89-year-old entertainer died unexpectedly a month before. The scripts for those programmes till lie in a box unrecorded and are slowly gathering dust and are symbols of the end of an era.

In December 2023, I produced a tribute to my friend, presented by Steve Wright. Radio 2 Remembers Barry Humphries celebrated the work of Steve’s (and my) favourite comedian and told Barry's story, from his birth in Melbourne on 17th February 1934 through his idyllic childhood as the eldest of four siblings and his university days (when he dropped out of a Law Degree) and on to his arrival in London in 1959. The rest, as they say, is history!

During the recording of the tribute programme to Barry with Steve Wright at Maida Vale, there was no sign that only a few months later radio listeners would also be deprived of Steve’s iconic presence on the airways. Steve Wright in the Afternoon ran on BBC Radio 2 for 23 years (after transferring from Radio 1). Steve Wright joined Radio 2 in 1996, initially hosting a two-hour Saturday morning show. When he moved back to his usual weekday afternoon slot, Jonathan Ross took over on Saturday mornings.

The main thing Steve Wright and Barry Humphries had in common was that they both adored the medium of radio - although Barry still referred to it as the wireless, of course! Born twenty years apart (1934 & 1954), both Barry and Steve shared a love of entertainment radio and, they weren’t the only ones. If you look closely at the picture of Barry in the studio with Steve above, you’ll be able to make out the back of Bobbie Pryor's head and the cheeky face of Tim Smith on the right. Whenever Barry Humphries came to play at Wogan House, Tim proved he was such a good sport because he was so often the butt of Barry’s jokes. Tim was Barry’s favourite chuckler at Radio 2 and each time he was due to come in to promote his new series of vintage music, the Australian comedian would go to great lengths, in advance of his visits, to research and then mine Tim’s private life for comedic effect during interviews supposedly promoting Forgotten Musical Masterpieces. Remembering this puts me in mind of the song They All Laughed, a song by George Gershwin (music) and his brother Ira (lyrics). That’s certainly what Steve and Barry (& company) did time and again, whenever they got together. Incidentally, references in the lyrics to They All Laughed include: Thomas Edison's phonograph and Guglielmo Marconi's Wireless telegraphy. These two technological advances eventually led to disc jockeys playing recordings on the BBC (other broadcasters are available. A gag for BBC insiders of course).

Steve and Barry had other things in common... Steve, for instance, was a big Audrey Hepburn fan and so was Barry. Famously dubbed over, in the movie musical My Fair Lady, by the singing voice of Mari Nixon, Audrey’s singing can still be heard performing a raft of fine Gershwin songs in the Fred Astaire movie Funny Face, which was released in picture houses a few years before My Fair Lady. Perhaps surprisingly, Barry Humphries also loved Fred Astaire and the song and dance man features in the comedian's Desert Island Disc selection. By the way, Barry Humphries was one of only a few people to get cast away more than once.

One of the many things I learned through researching and producing six series of Barry's Forgotten Musical Masterpieces is that George Gershwin, Barry's favourite composer, was only 38 when he died of a brain tumour in 1937. A workaholic, George Gershwin packed in so much in his life that his name is still known to most people today, long after he died in 1937, twelve years after he was on the cover of Time Magazine in 1925.

Readers of my previous blogposts will already know: listening to the radio, when he was a little boy, was how Barry Humphries first discovered some people actually had jobs entertaining others. He recalled during one broadcast:

“In many of the comics on the radio, I recognised the northern intonation of my paternal grandfather, John Humphries. My grandfather's Lancashire accent had hitherto sounded so unique and outlandish in Melbourne, but there seemed to be countless comics on the wireless, who sounded just like him.”

So, now you know, the origins of Barry's humour actually lie in Lancashire. John Humphries, Barry’s paternal grandfather had sailed to Australia in the 1880s in the wake of the Australian goldrush and subsequently did rather well as a builder in and around Melbourne. His son, Eric, followed in his footsteps, but his eldest grandson – little Barry – grew up with other ideas for a future career, thanks to the funny voices he heard on his parents' wireless. Among the funny men, who stood out on the wireless to little Barry was Lancashire's very own George Formby. In the 1930s and 40s, the Lancashire singer and comedian was the highest paid performer in the Britain. Yet, to Barry’s grandfather, it was his father - George Formby Senior - who was the biggest and brightest entertainment star of his generation. And, for a musical hall star, George Formby Senior adapted well to the new technology of sound recording, as it arrived on the scene in the early 20th century. For instance, he finished one of his recordings imaginatively like this: "I've finished talking now. I could have got another gag in only I didn't think we had time, you see. Is time up now? Let me know and I can go h'me. Right. Goodnight lads."

George Formby Senior recorded his first song in 1906 and, before his death in 1921 at the age of 45, he'd made more than 200 gramophone recordings, including as I Parted My Hair in the Middle. In programme 2 of the first series, broadcast in 2016, Barry reflected how George Formby Senior, “chatted and performed his songs to the unseen audience with ease." Interestingly, George Formby Senior never wanted his son to follow in his footsteps, he wanted little George Formby to be a jockey instead. Thankfully, for us and little George, fate had other ideas. And, personally, I think it's also rather good, Barry Humphries didn't become a lawyer either, eh?

A year on from Barry's death, I really miss spending time with him and swapping notes on music and witty songs, recorded during the first half of the 20th century. No one else I know has as much knowledge as Barry did. I was lucky to have known him, for a relatively short time, since 2015. Barry loved looking back and, for me, he was a living link to a long line of performers from the past. Not long after Barry had arrived in London in 1959, he went to one of the final performances at the huge Metropolitan music hall on Edgeware Road, before it was pulled down to make way for the West Way. On the bill the night when Barry went along (and the performer who impressed him most) was Randolph Sutton singing On Mother Kelly's Doorstep among other songs. Now, without Barry, I'm still love discovering old songs and atmospheric recording stars of the past, yet I'm no longer able to share them in full with a wider public via the BBC and my beloved Radio 2. I, at least, have this blog to share some things though. I wrote a piece for the Express (see below) in December 2023, which summed up my love for that particular network's place in British culture and also paid tribute to my friend Barry. Despite our age difference, we both loved the power of radio, along with Steve Wright.

Since I wrote this blogpost, someone has been in touch (see below) to suggest I start a podcast. There may of course be some copyright issues with some of the music I'd ideally like to play but other tunes would be out of copyright and available given their age. I'll give further thought to the podcast idea and really appreciate the suggestion. I'm usually being the scenes, so stepping in front of the microphone feels like a big step in different direction, but maybe it's time to try new things. And, if I've learned anything from Barry and Steve, it's make the most of each day. It may be your last. So, if you're interested, watch this space ;)